US4097142A - Optical pattern tracer - Google Patents

Optical pattern tracer Download PDF

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Publication number
US4097142A
US4097142A US05/750,456 US75045676A US4097142A US 4097142 A US4097142 A US 4097142A US 75045676 A US75045676 A US 75045676A US 4097142 A US4097142 A US 4097142A
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United States
Prior art keywords
pattern
substrate
onto
cell
recording
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Expired - Lifetime
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US05/750,456
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English (en)
Inventor
Paul Cyril Moutou
Michel Hareng
Serge Le Berre
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Thales SA
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Thomson CSF SA
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    • G—PHYSICS
    • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
    • G03F—PHOTOMECHANICAL PRODUCTION OF TEXTURED OR PATTERNED SURFACES, e.g. FOR PRINTING, FOR PROCESSING OF SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; MATERIALS THEREFOR; ORIGINALS THEREFOR; APPARATUS SPECIALLY ADAPTED THEREFOR
    • G03F7/00—Photomechanical, e.g. photolithographic, production of textured or patterned surfaces, e.g. printing surfaces; Materials therefor, e.g. comprising photoresists; Apparatus specially adapted therefor
    • G03F7/20—Exposure; Apparatus therefor

Definitions

  • This invention relates to optical pattern tracers.
  • the patterns thus traced are generally used as masks for the production of integrated circuits.
  • masks of this type can be produced by drawing them to a large scale, for example on sensitised paper, followed by photographic reduction. In most cases, this photographic reduction step is carried out twice, the mask thus obtained being used in contact with a substrate coated with photosensitive resin to transfer the required pattern thereto. This transfer may also be carried out optically by placing the substrate thus coated in the photographic reduction apparatus in place of the mask obtained by the first process.
  • an apparatus for tracing under the control of a set of external control signals a pattern onto a substrate coated with a photo sensitive product which comprises:
  • FIGURE illustrate a schematic embodiment of a tracer according to the invention.
  • the tracer shown in the FIGURE comprises two light sources 101 and 102, a shutter 103, six lenses 104 to 109, two rotating mirrors 110 and 111, 2 motors 112 and 113, a semitransparent mirror 114, a liquid crystal cell 115 and a monitor screen 116.
  • the light source 101 for example a carbon dioxide laser, emits a parallel beam of light comprising a great amount of infrared radiations. This beam is intercepted by the optical interrupter 103, which can stop it or allow it through, under the action of a first control signal delivered through the connection S.
  • the lenses 104 and 105 merely perform the well known function of beam enlarger so as to limit the effect of diffraction.
  • the beam issuing from the shutter 103 and the lenses 104 and 105 is deflected by the rotating mirrors 110 and 111 of which the axes of rotation are perpendicular. These mirrors are rotated by the motors 112 and 113, respectively.
  • the motors operate in response to a second and a third control signals delivered to them through connections X and Y.
  • the beam deflected by the mirror 111 is focused by a projection lens, diagrammatically represented by the lens 106, at a point P 1 of the active layer of the liquid crystal cell 115 after having passed through the semitransparent mirror 114.
  • This point P 1 appears depending on whether the shutter 103 is open or closed and moves according to the rotation of the mirrors 110 and 111, thus tracing the desired pattern, for example I 1 in the FIGURE.
  • the mechanical/optical deflecting means thus used are particularly well suited to the low response speed of the liquid crystal cells which do not necessitate the use of particularly fast deflectors.
  • the control signals applied to the interrupter 103 and to the motors 112 and 113 come from an external electronic computer which is programmed according to a well known method to the pattern to be obtained. In this particular respect, the technique is very comparable with that used in the electronic maskers such as that described in "Revue Technique THOMSON-CSF", Vol. 5, No. 4, December 1973, the control signals being fitted for controlling motors instead of electron beam deviators.
  • the various methods of recording an image in a liquid crystal cell are themselves well known and are described particularly in French Patent Application No. 74.42. 640.
  • the liquid crystal which initially is in an organized smectic state, is brought to the point of impact of the infrared beam in the liquid state by the heat present in that beam and, by cooling, reassumes a disorganized smectic form which is diffusing, while the organized smectic form is transparent.
  • parts of the image obtained can be selectively erased by passing the infrared beam back over these parts and by subjecting the film to a voltage which reorients the crystal causing its return to the smectic phase.
  • One of these variants consists in applying to the cell 115 the control signal now applied to the shutter 103 so as to control a voltage applied to that cell.
  • this voltage is at the value used for selective erasing, there is in fact no recording despite the passage of the infrared beam. Accordingly, this enables the beam to be left permanently intact so that the shutter 103 may be cancelled.
  • the light source 102 comparable with a spot source, emits a divergent light beam represented only by its axis. This beam is intercepted by the lens 107 acting as a condenser and illuminates the cell 115 by way of the mirror 114. This beam is filtered to eliminate the long-wave radiations so as not to influence the cell 115 and not erase the pattern writted in.
  • the mirror 114 a dichroic mirror which transmits the red and reflects the blue.
  • a projection lens represented diagrammatically by the lens 108, projects an enlarged image I 2 of the pattern I 1 on the monitor screen 116.
  • this image is black on white background because the lines of the image I 1 are difusing, although this contrast may readily be inverted by using the Schlieren method which consists in eliminating the zero diffraction order by placing a masking screen at the image focusing point of the lens 103.
  • This inversion of contrast is accompanied by an increase in its absolute value which is particularly favourable to the photographic process subsequently used.
  • the nature of the final contrast will be selected, for a given configuration of the tracer, by a subsequent programming of the computer controlling the recording on the cell 115.
  • the lens 108 On completion of recording of the pattern in the cell 115, the lens 108 is replaced by a projection lens represented diagrammatically by the lens 109, and the screen 116 by a substrate 117 coated with photosensitive resin. To this end, it is convenient to fix the lenses 108 and 109, the screen 116 and the substrate 117 to one and the same frame represented diagrammatically by the part 118 and to move this frame in the direction D.
  • the light source 102 is of course blanked out.
  • the source 102 is brought into service again and the lens 109 forms the reduced image I 3 of the pattern I 1 on the substrate 117. This image is recorded on the photosensitive resin covering the substrate which is then treated in the usual way.
  • the substrate 117 may of course be replaced by a photographic plate which will then act as a mask for reproducing the pattern thus obtained by direct printing.
  • the image is formed on a photographic plate instead of a substrate for obtaining a master mask. If necessary, the pattern may be repetitively reproduced by displacing this plate step-by-step on the support 118.
  • the lens 108 enables this pattern to be enlarged 40 times which, on the screen 116, gives 0.8 mm wide lines which are thus perfectly legible.
  • the lens 109 enables this pattern to be reduced 20 times which, on the substrate 117, gives 1 ⁇ wide lines substantially corresponding to the maximum possible limit in optical processes.
  • the contrast obtained on projection is approximately 20/1 which is perfectly suitable for exposing the resins commonly used.
  • the pattern thus traced is contained after development in a 1 ⁇ 1 mm 2 frame and the limiting resolution is 0.5 ⁇ .
  • One simple solution is to record the pattern solely by displacing this cell, thereby eliminating the action of the movable mirrors. In this case, it is difficult to obtain uniform displacement and it is preferred to displace the cell step-by-step in two perpendicular directions so as to bring to each step a blank zone which is recorded in the same way as described above, the pattern being obtained in the form of a series of juxtaposed squares.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Liquid Crystal (AREA)
  • Exposure And Positioning Against Photoresist Photosensitive Materials (AREA)
  • Exposure Of Semiconductors, Excluding Electron Or Ion Beam Exposure (AREA)
  • Image Input (AREA)
US05/750,456 1975-12-19 1976-12-14 Optical pattern tracer Expired - Lifetime US4097142A (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
FR7539184 1975-12-19
FR7539184A FR2335876A1 (fr) 1975-12-19 1975-12-19 Traceur de dessins fonctionnant par voie optique

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
US4097142A true US4097142A (en) 1978-06-27

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US05/750,456 Expired - Lifetime US4097142A (en) 1975-12-19 1976-12-14 Optical pattern tracer

Country Status (5)

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US (1) US4097142A (fr)
JP (1) JPS5277591A (fr)
DE (1) DE2656679A1 (fr)
FR (1) FR2335876A1 (fr)
GB (1) GB1543398A (fr)

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4452528A (en) * 1981-03-13 1984-06-05 W. C. Heraeus Gmbh Optical reproduction method and apparatus
US4561773A (en) * 1982-11-17 1985-12-31 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Projection exposure apparatus
US4606610A (en) * 1984-05-03 1986-08-19 Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. Imaging system using tellurium-based energy sensitive sheet and variable image displaying means

Families Citing this family (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB2131964A (en) * 1982-12-10 1984-06-27 Letraset International Ltd Exposing through an LCD
JPS6265057A (ja) * 1985-09-16 1987-03-24 ゼロツクス　コ−ポレ−シヨン 合成画像形成装置
JP2501053B2 (ja) * 1991-10-04 1996-05-29 株式会社日立製作所 紫外パルスレ―ザによる投影式露光方法

Citations (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3573849A (en) * 1969-02-04 1971-04-06 Bell Telephone Labor Inc Pattern generating apparatus
US3584949A (en) * 1968-12-04 1971-06-15 Richard G Clow Optical computing apparatus and method
US3648583A (en) * 1968-08-19 1972-03-14 Karl Blattner Automatic drawing machine
US3704946A (en) * 1969-02-20 1972-12-05 Opt Omechanisms Inc Microcircuit art generating means
US3732796A (en) * 1970-07-09 1973-05-15 Thomson Csf Line tracing systems using laser energy for exposing photo-sensitive substrates
US3764211A (en) * 1972-08-25 1973-10-09 Eastman Kodak Co Display system capable of selective annotation

Patent Citations (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3648583A (en) * 1968-08-19 1972-03-14 Karl Blattner Automatic drawing machine
US3584949A (en) * 1968-12-04 1971-06-15 Richard G Clow Optical computing apparatus and method
US3573849A (en) * 1969-02-04 1971-04-06 Bell Telephone Labor Inc Pattern generating apparatus
US3704946A (en) * 1969-02-20 1972-12-05 Opt Omechanisms Inc Microcircuit art generating means
US3732796A (en) * 1970-07-09 1973-05-15 Thomson Csf Line tracing systems using laser energy for exposing photo-sensitive substrates
US3764211A (en) * 1972-08-25 1973-10-09 Eastman Kodak Co Display system capable of selective annotation

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4452528A (en) * 1981-03-13 1984-06-05 W. C. Heraeus Gmbh Optical reproduction method and apparatus
US4561773A (en) * 1982-11-17 1985-12-31 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Projection exposure apparatus
US4606610A (en) * 1984-05-03 1986-08-19 Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. Imaging system using tellurium-based energy sensitive sheet and variable image displaying means

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
GB1543398A (en) 1979-04-04
JPS5277591A (en) 1977-06-30
FR2335876B1 (fr) 1980-03-21
DE2656679A1 (de) 1977-06-30
FR2335876A1 (fr) 1977-07-15

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